Something I found really interesting in last nights reading was the section that talked about the tribal languages. When I think about other languages spoken in the world, I think about French, German, Spanish, and Chinese; mostly the ones that are taught in school. Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask states that, “There may have been a many as five hundred distinct tribal languages in North America prior to sustained contact with Europeans. There are now around 180, but the number is shrinking.” It is crazy that at one point there were around five hundred different languages on the very continent in which we live, and I have never heard anyone speak a word of any of them. This is proof of the culture dying out and that Natives are being assimilated with the general public.
It is truly sad that only about twenty tribal languages are prospected to still be spoken in a hundred years. No one would dream of European or Asian languages going extinct, but the languages of the Native Americans are disappearing more and more from generation to generation. I feel that it is very important that native children today are taught the language of their ancestors so they can keep their culture alive.
afthomas June 13, 2018
I was as equally surprised at all the information we read about the tribal languages. I had no idea a human being could even generate enough sounds to be able to make over 500 languages. I also think it is very interesting that their languages are dying out as you pointed out that about only 20 are still spoken today, yet millions of people around the world speak Chinese and that language has been around for centuries and other variations of it are still spoken, it is not dyeing out. So why should the tribal languages be forgotten? It is an unfair world. I also agree with that children of natives should be taught the tribal languages and pass them down. They are the next generation. If they want to keep the languages alive it is necessary to pass them down. It is a part of their entire culture and should not be forgotten.
makayla7 June 13, 2018
This was also something that I found intriguing. It’s terrible to think of how many languages have died in only a few hundred years. Also, the fact that there is projected to be only a few languages left in 100 years is unbelievable. I find it weird how some are aware that the culture is slowly dying but there is nothing that we can do about it. This can also relate to, like we talked about in class today, Native Americans growing up with non-native families. In doing this, they are unconsciously picking up on another culture, which in turn causes them to abandon their own.
caleby June 14, 2018
The complexity of the tribal languages was very interesting because I have always thought that there was one basic language that multiple tribes spoke, but I was very mistaken. The fact that each tribe could have an individual language shows how much detail they value in their traditions and customs. The sad part is that since no one wants to continue some languages, the languages eventually die off and are unable to be brought back to common use. I can’t wait to learn more about the differences in each language.
inieland June 16, 2018
Yeah it is surprising that so many unique languages existed just here. And it is quite sad that so many went extinct without cataloging. One of the things that happened at least, when Americans first started shoving the Tribes into reservations, it is quite possible that the languages began to meld until just one remained. In spite of all of the efforts that the Americans, Spanish, and French did I find it almost inspiring that so many languages managed to survive to this day. Even more so that they are growing in use again, the example in the book of having the Ojibwe language put on bathroom signs with English.